Five Times Danny Was Silent (and Steve Hated It)
by SamanthaKathy
Summary: Ever since Steve met Danny, it seemed like the guy hadn't shut up for even one moment. Steve had never wished for silence more, but whenever he got his wish, he hated the silence.


**Author's note: originally published 19 September 2011 on AO3. **

**Warning: number 4 is slightly dub-con.**

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1.

Danny had a horrible cold, although how anyone managed to get a cold in Hawaii was anyone's guess. It has started as a simple stuffed nose, but soon evolved in such a cold that Danny completely lost his voice. No more talking, not even a whispered word – Danny simply couldn't say anything, although he certainly tried. But not even a croak got out of his throat.

The first few days were bliss, the silence Steve had so missed returned without Danny being absent. The best of both worlds, he'd thought. But then the silence started to become annoying and Steve actually wanted to hear Danny talk again. He still hasn't admitted that it was him, not Kono, who provided all the hot tea with honey. But he sure breathed a sigh of relief when Danny started talking again, even if it was just a few croaked words a day at first.

2.

When Rachel threatened to take Grace away, after the incident at the football stadium, Danny was so angry no words left his throat. He tried, several times, to say something, but eventually subsided into a simmering silence. Steve waited all day for the rant he was expecting, but it never came. Yet he could still see it brewing, underneath Danny's calm.

At the end of that day, Steve had enough. He'd seen a lot of scary things in his life, but nothing, absolutely nothing, was as scary as a silently enraged Danny. He called the Governor, asked her to interfere in this. He gave her some bullshit story about _Ohana_ being important, and she fell for it hook, line, and sinker. But the truth was that an enraged Danny scared him more than he wanted to admit.

The next day, when Danny was walk to his usual talking self, Steve breathed out a sigh of relief. He noticed Chin and Kono did as well, and both of them took the time to quietly thank him. For some reason, Steve couldn't shake the feeling that by calling the Governor he'd defused a highly unstable bomb named Danny Williams – and he swore to never get Danny angry enough that he stopped talking.

3.

They were on a case when an explosion catapulted Danny into a concrete wall. Although Steve wanted to rush to his side, he couldn't, as bullets were still flying around their ears. He shot back, forcing the perps to duck behind some crates. In the temporary calm Steve half-turned to Danny and shouted his name, but there was no answer. In fact, he wasn't moving at all and that scared Steve.

The next few minutes were once again filled with bullets flying, but throughout it all half of Steve's attention was on Danny, who still hadn't moved. Then finally, finally all of the perps were either dead or in custody, and Steve was free to check on Danny, phone already out to call an ambulance. As he kneeled by Danny's side, he was very aware of the rapidly growing puddle of blood that came from the bleeding wound at the back of Danny's head. Steve performed whatever first aid he could while he waited for the EMTs to get there.

From then on out it was a waiting game. First waiting at the hospital for some news, which wasn't good. Danny had a serious head injury, the doctors talked about brain swelling and a coma, even possible brain damage. Steve felt like there wasn't enough air to breath every time he thought about Danny not being Danny anymore. With shaking hands he called Rachel to let her know, and he didn't know what was worse: the angry words she let loose at him, blaming him for not keeping Danny safe, or the tears that came after.

Steve spent his days in the hospital by Danny's side, only leaving whenever Kono or Chin forced him to take a shower and eat something. The only thing breaking the silence was the beeping of the machines, and it felt _wrong, wrong, wrong_. Danny should be yelling at Steve about how all of this was his fault, about waiting for back-up, about freaking pineapples – because somehow everything always ended up being about pineapples. But there was only silence.

It took five days for Danny to open his eyes and they seemed to last five years. But the five seconds of silence until Danny said 'Steve, did we get them?', showing the brain damage the doctors had been so concerned about hadn't manifested, seemed to take an eternity. Steve had never been so glad to have the silence broken than in that moment.

4.

Steve had been worried about Danny for some time now. Every Wednesday for the past few weeks, Danny had been full of pent up energy, tightly coiled, like he was waiting for something bad to happen. Whenever Steve questioned him about it, Danny didn't say a word, just talked around it. Never before had he resented Danny's ability to say a lot without actually saying anything this much. He knew something was wrong with his partner, but he couldn't help unless Danny actually confided in him. But after several weeks of the same pattern, Steve subtle and not so subtle questions hadn't been answered, and he realized they never would be. Whatever was going on, he wasn't going to get answers from Danny.

So one night Steve followed Danny, hoping that maybe he could get to the bottom of this. Whatever Danny was caught up in, he could help, and he was going to, whether Danny wanted him to or not. The final destination of Danny ended up being a seedy gay bar. From the easy way Danny had found it, he'd been there before.

Never in his life had Steve felt so angry. This particular bar was a place notorious for being visited by a members of a gang they'd busted people from before, was run by someone connected to at least three suspects in cases in the past year, and Danny really should've known better than to come here for the anonymous sex he was obviously looking for. Without thinking about it, being driven solely by his anger and fear for Danny's safety, Steve went in. He found Danny lip-locked with another guy, but with a well-placed jab of his elbow to the guy's side Steve broke them up.

Danny was pale and silent as Steve dragged him out to the alley, where he pushed him to the wall. Feeling reckless, and still so very, very angry, he unbuckled Danny's belt, opened up his pants, and sank to his knees to give Danny a blowjob. Aside from gasping for breath, Danny didn't make a sound, not even as he came in Steve's mouth. Steve pulled back and waited until Danny had tucked himself inside his pants again before speaking.

"Next time you want to get yourself killed, come to me and I'll help out."

He left it in the middle if he meant give another blow job or shoot him himself. Probably because he didn't know himself. He then turned around, once again dragging Danny with him. The stupid haole had taken a cab to get here, and Steve was not letting him stay here a second longer.

When he dropped Danny off at his apartment, he was still silent. Steve's anger had long since been spent, leaving only fear behind. Not so much fear for Danny's safety, as it had been earlier in the evening, but fear of the repercussions to his actions.

Steve spent the night praying to every God that existed, hoping he hadn't ruined his relationship with Danny. He realized what he had done could be taken as rape, and that thought alone made him sick. He was man enough to admit he'd been jealous and worried, but that didn't excuse his actions.

When his phone rang the next morning and he heard Danny's voice say 'we need to talk', his knees went weak with relief. He'd been afraid the silence would last forever.

5.

Steve had pictured sex with Danny a thousand times before he actually had the guy in his bed for real. He'd pictured it in a thousand different ways. But not once had he pictured Danny as silent. Not even after that blowjob in the alley. Steve had attributed Danny's silence to the circumstances, not seen it as Danny's normal behavior.

Yet it seemed it _was_ normal. Apart from some breathy gasps not a sound passed Danny's lips, all other sounds ruthlessly suppressed. Several times he saw Danny actually biting his lips or his tongue to keep the sounds inside of him. Steve decided to get the reason for that later, sure there was a reason behind it. For now, he just increased his attempts to wrench the sounds out of his lover. Maybe Steve could show him then that it was all right to be heard.


End file.
